Lowellville wants to build on 2012 improvement

After a season in which Lowellville experienced a three-win improvement — 1-9 in 2011 to 4-6 in 2012 — head coach Jeff D’Altorio knows the reality of the situation.

“We did lose some key guys from last year,” he said of the 2012 seniors.

But the way the 2013 Rockets’ roster is shaping up, the third-year head coach believes the positives outweigh the negatives.

“Based on what we have coming back, we expect to be right in the mix of things,” D’Altorio said. “We have a nice offensive line coming back and good skill people and I expect us to be very competitive.”

D’Altorio is encouraged by the fact that he has 15 players returning with varsity experience. And while “five or six” underclassmen are still being prepared for the Friday night lights, the veteran-heavy Rockets expect to take another step in the right direction.

“We’re just gonna go out and keep the train rolling and keep things going in the right way,” said offensive tackle Colin Pope.

“We have most of our offensive line back from last year, so we have a lot of experience,” Pope said. “I think we’re gonna be good on the offensive side of the ball.”

The veteran offensive line will look to create opportunities for a variety of skill players, including Jessie Terwilliger, Robert Ciccone, Nick Lucente, Eric Grow and Phil Ginnis.

“I’m expecting big things out of those guys for us,” D’Altorio said.

Junior quarterback Alex Harklerode played in all 10 games last season, splitting time at quarterback with Geno Moore.

“We can run the ball and pass the ball, so we can do a little bit of everything,” Minnie said.

While the Rockets will work mostly out of the I-formation, D’Altorio said they will run the spread offense as well.

“Our goal is to be able to throw the ball a little bit more this year,” he said. “We haven’t been very productive throwing the ball since I’ve been here. We ran the ball well, but we definitely need to throw the ball and I think we have the ability to do it this year.”

DEFENSE

Many offensive starters also will play defense.

Terwilliger — an All-ITCL Tier Two middle linebacker — anchors the defense, while the senior linemen will also play both ways. Lucente will start at defensive back for the fourth year in a row.